“I say it without the least hesitation, whoever calls himself the universal bishop, or desires this title, is by his pride the precursor of the anti-Christ because he thus attempts to raise himself above the others. The error into which he falls springs from pride equal to that of the anti-Christ. For as that wicked one wished to be regardedas exalted above other men, like a god, so likewise whosoever would call himself sole bishop exalteth himself above others” -Gregory the Dialogist
“It cannot be denied that if any one bishop be called universal, all the Church crumbles if that universal one fall”- ibid
“For neither does any of us set himself up as a bishop of bishops, nor by tyrannical terror does any compel his colleague to the necessity of obedience; since every bishop, according to the allowance of his liberty and power, has his own proper right of judgment, and can no more be judged by another than he himself can judge another” – Cyprian, Ante-Nicene Fathers, 5:565
“Wherever a bishop may be whether at Rome or at Eugubium, at Constantinople or at Rhegium, at Alexandria or at Thanis, he is of the same worth…for all of them are the successors of the apostles.” -Jerome (author of the Latin Vulgate and highly venerate in the Roman Catholic Church)
“I, therefore, brethren, who have lived sixty-five years in the Lord, and have met with the brethren throughout the world, and have gone through every Holy Scripture, am not affrighted by terrifying words. For those greater than I have said, we ought to obey God rather than man. ” -Eusebius, quoting Letter to Victor by Polycrates
Wherefore it is incumbent to obey the presbyters who are in the Church,- those who, as I have shown, possess the succession from the apostles; those who, together with the succession of the episcopate, have received the certain gift of truth, according to the good pleasure of the Father. But [it is also incumbent] to hold in suspicion others who depart from the primitive succession, and assemble themselves together in any place whatsoever, [looking upon them] either as heretics of perverse minds, or as schematics puffed up and self-pleasing, or again as hypocrites, acting thus for the sake of lucre and vainglory. For all these have fallen from the truth. And the heretics, indeed, who bring strange fire to the altar of God – namely, strange doctrines – shall be burned up by the fire from heaven, as were Nadab and Abiud. -Irenaeus (A.D. 180) Ante-Nicene Fathers vol.1 pg. 49
Whatsoever is appointed by human madness, so that the divine disposition is violated, is adulterous, is impious, is sacrilegious. Depart far from the contagion of men of this kind. And flee from their words, avoiding them as a cancer and a plague, as the Lord warns you and says, “They are blind leaders of the blind. But if the blind lead the blind, they shall both fall into the ditch.” -Cyprian (A.D. 250) Ante-Nicene Fathers vol.5 pg. 318
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